Architect Girish Doshi Subliminally uses experience-design to reinforce retail-design by elevating the intangible at the same level as the tangible aspects of the Brand, SAR. Built on playful surprises, he transforms a traditional shop through future-facing aesthetics. The physical products SĀR is known for are experiences in the context of a lifestyle along with communal discourse and exchange, making SĀR Residence function as ‘retail-therapy’ as well as traditional ‘retail-spending’
The Flagship Space features a Shop, Communal Kitchen, and hosts Stays and Experiences & Studio and Design Residencies.
THE ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of the SĀR Residence is realised by Ar. Girish Doshi, who melts the ideologies of locale with the essence of regional elements. As observed the blocks of buildings are extruded irregular with cuboidal volumes, grounded through courtyards and bridged by terraces. Its ambiguity is a call to village houses; a cluster of rooms, unpretentious, built on mere necessity, rather than wishful designing.
SĀR Residence, bound in Pune, is a 3 hour drive South of Mumbai, set in a landscape that retains for the most part a serene and unspoilt backdrop. Here, one can effortlessly disconnect from everyday rush and surrender themselves to the beauty of essential things. Settled in the brisk of a greens with dabs of nimbus skies resides this community; deep into the ground, with fading hues of city in the background.
From walls and openings, room and corridors, to staircases and brides; they all realise their forms through one simple rule - multiplication on a grid of 350 millimetres. This leads to the harmonious marriage of voluminous cuboids on the outside, set off by 350mm thick walls into compact spaces on the inside – a window into perpetual reality. The architecture is an ode to the modernism with traditional notes. It finds its togetherness through thick walls, narrow stairways, intercepting openings, a sheer derivation from Pune’s architectural heritage. The elements constantly converse through shifting your perception as you walk around alleys and courtyards, a subtle reminder of the journeys along the well-trodden roads of India.